The Community Kitchen

The Community Kitchen serves a nutritious breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week, 365 days a year. The Kitchen is located in the Salvation Army in downtown Olympia – at the corner of 5th and Plumb. The Kitchen also provides offsite lunches four days a week to teenagers at Community Youth Services, and five days a week to adults at Drexel House.

Meal Times:

Breakfast – 7:15 am until 8:15 am

Lunch – 11 am until 12 pm

Dinner – 5 pm until 6 pm

Become a Volunteer

To volunteer, email our Community Involvement Coordinator. They will connect you with a crew that needs help with a specific meal. Lunch crew members arrive at 9 am and work until 12:30 pm. Dinner Crews arrive at 2:30 pm to help prepare and serve the meal. Some crews have volunteers that arrive only to help serve at 4:30 pm. All dinner crew members are asked to stay and clean-up until 6:30 pm.

Email Peter Epperson (Community Involvement Coordinator) or call him at 253-642-7514 to find out more about volunteering. Please share with him: 1) what days and times work best for you, 2) if you want to volunteer once a month or more, and 3) whether you want to help with lunch or dinner.

Once a volunteer schedule has been worked out, we’ll email you a map to The Community Kitchen. The map shows where to park for free and where to enter The Community Kitchen.

Volunteering at The Community Kitchen is easy. Once you arrive, put on an apron, wash your hands, put on sterile gloves, and ask your crew leader for an assignment. Consider:

Cutting up vegetables, fruit, or meat

Preparing desserts, bread, and drinks

Serving the main course, salad, fruit, or dessert

Washing dishes

Cleaning the kitchen and/or the dining area

After volunteering, you’ll go away smiling, feeling good (having worked with fun people), and happy knowing you made a difference in the lives of others. Feeding your neighbors a nutritious meal brings joy and hope to all.